“Sirius, I need to talk to you,” James said angrily and he stormed into their dormitory.

Sirius was lying lazily on his bed with his arms behind his head. It was mid-afternoon, two weeks before exams and so naturally Sirius and James were doing nothing. Remus, on the other hand, was sitting in one corner silently reading his Advanced Potions book, his beady eyes moving back and forth, trying to register each word. Peter was no where to be found in the room, he was probably down in the kitchens trying to steal some scraps from breakfast.

Sirius lifted his head a little and then slumped back down. “What is it?”

“It’s Lily,” James said shortly.

Sirius rolled his eyes. “I thought you guys both agreed to spend some time away from each other. Did you have another fight or something?”

James shook his head. “No, we didn’t fight. But…alright let me ask you something. Let’s say you were a girl-”

Sirius raised his eyebrows. “A pretty girl?” He asked, scoffing.

“I’m serious, Padfoot. Alright, let’s say you’re a girl and you just ended a six month relationship with this guy you’ve known for 5 years.”

“Well, I wonder who we’re talking about,” Sirius said sarcastically.

“How long would you wait before dating another guy?” James asked.

Sirius sat up and pondered for a few moments. “Well…” he began. “Did I really like this guy that I broke up with?”

“Yeah,” James said.

“Well…I don’t know…maybe like a week?”

James gaped at Sirius. “You’d be a horrible girl,” he sneered.

“I would not,” Sirius said indignantly. “I’d be a very pretty one.” He laughed and then continued. “But seriously, what’s wrong with you and Lily?”

“Well we broke up a month ago and I found out that she went on a date with somebody last night. How horrible!”

Sirius looked unshaken. “Oh yes, very horrible indeed. A single, good looking teenager going on a date! Somebody should go tell her mother!” Then, without being able to control himself, he burst out laughing.

“Even I haven’t dated yet! I can’t believe Evans. I mean, come on.”

“Just relax, Prongs,” Sirius said. “I’m sure it was nothing; and besides, how do you know she went out with someone?”

“I saw Evans at breakfast this morning and she couldn’t stop smiling and giggling. It was so obvious; I mean the only thing more obvious was if she wore a sign that said “I WENT ON A DATE.””

James made a sour baby face and slumped down on his bed. Just then, Peter came inside the room and tripped on the door’s ledge, falling flat on his face. James laughed while Remus helped him up.

Sirius got up off the bed and got a box of exploding candy from under his bed. “Wormtail, it’s like you attract stupidity.”

“Was that ledge always there?” Pettigrew said as he got up. “Oh by the way, Professor Binns wants to talk to you, Prongs and Moony.”

Sirius turned towards Remus. “Why would he want to see you? I mean, with Prongs it’s understandable but you’re like the best kid in the whole school.”

Remus shrugged. “Let’s go,” he said, referring to James.

“Yeah, okay.”

James and Remus both got up and left the dormitory. As they both left the room, Peter turned to Sirius.

“That ledge wasn’t always there, was it?” He asked Sirius.

Sirius shook his head. “I guess you’re not as stupid as you look.” He waved his wand and the ledge beneath the door disappeared.
***
Remus knocked on Professor Binns’ door. “Come in,” a hollow voice came from inside. Both he and James went in.

“You wanted to see us, sir,” Remus said quietly.

“Ah yes, Mr. Lupin,” Professor Binns said smiling. “I wanted to return your essay to you personally. I was very impressed with your use of evidence to support your theories and the connections you drew from the ‘Origins of Sorcery’.”

Professor Binns handed Remus a thick pile of parchment with a large ‘A+’ on the top. “Well done,” he said smiling.

Remus smiled back and nodded. Professor Binns then turned to James. “You, on the other hand, Mr. Potter, I was very…interested with your essay. You seem to have forgotten to hand in half of it.”

James scratched his head guiltily. He knew very well that Professor Binns knew that he hadn’t even stared on second part of his essay.

Professor Binns rolled his eyes and after a ten minute lecture on how James should be more like Remus, dismissed both boys. As they walked towards their dormitory, James heard a voice down the corridor.

“Potter! Lupin!”

He turned and saw Lily Evans rushing from behind. She was carrying a red book in her hand which was poorly bound with pages falling out from it.

“Why are you here in the middle of the day?” she asked James.

“I don’t know,” James said coldly. “Is there a rule against it?”

“No, I was just wondering.” Lily was smiling rather unusually today, James noticed. He knew why. But then, he noticed something unusual about her, she had a smear of lipstick on the side of her lip.

“Evans, you’ve got something on your lip,” he said casually.

“Oh,” Lily blushed furiously and quickly took out a tissue to wipe the lipstick off. When she was done, she put the tissue back into her bag and handed Remus the huge red book. “Thanks for the notes,” she said.

“No problem,” Remus said as he took the book. She smiled at James and then left.

“Did you see that?” James sneered. “The way she came here?”

“She came to return my notes,” Remus said.

“That was her excuse. She just came here to make me jealous about her date last night. The way she kept smiling…it was so obvious.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “You’re just paranoid.”

“I am not,” James said defensively. Just then, he realized something. Lily had lipstick on the side of her lips. Lily Evans had lipstick on the side of her lips.

James gasped. “She kissed him!”

Remus looked at James like he was crazy. “What?”

“Evans kissed him last night. That’s why she had lipstick on her cheek and that’s why she can’t stop smiling. I can’t believe this!”

“Kissed who?”

“The same guy she had a date with. This is unbelievable! It’s been barely a month and she’s already kissing guys.”
***
Sirius lay in the dormitory, relaxing as usual when James stormed in with Remus tagging behind him.

Sirius looked at James with an incredulous look. “That’s the dumbest reason I’ve ever heard.”

“I agree,” Remus said, putting the red book away.

“Moony wasn’t paying enough attention to her. She was smiling constantly,” James insisted. “I’ve known for so long and she only gets that giddy when she’s kissed somebody.”

“Well, if you’re so damn adamant to find out who she kissed, ask her roommate,” Sirius suggested.

“Good idea,” James said and went back outside. Remus and Sirius remained standing and watching in awe.

“Why doesn’t he just tell her that he didn’t want to break up?” Sirius asked.

Remus shrugged. “No one will ever understand James Potter.
***
James went down into the common room to try and find Andrea, Lily’s roommate. He saw her sitting by the fireplace reading a book and called out her name really loudly.

“Andrea!”

She turned immediately and the book fell out of her hand. Andrea was a short Gryffindor. Her eyes were dark brown and her brown hair reached barely beneath her shoulders. She rolled her eyes and picked up her book as James approached.

“What is it, Potter?” she asked in an irritated voice.

“Where were you last night?”

“Why does it matter to you?” she asked. “Oh wait.” Realization dawned upon her face and she smiled. “You heard about Lily’s rendezvous didn’t you?”

“So she really did go out with somebody last night?”

Andrea nodded. “Sorry Potter, guess this time the break up’s for good.”

James sighed and sat down as Andrea continued. “Well if it helps, I thought you and Lily made a great couple.”

“Who did she go out with?”

Andrea shrugged. “I don’t know. Our entire school was at the Quidditch game last night but Lily stayed back because she needed to study. She wouldn’t tell me who it was, but apparently the two of them studied together and things kind of moved from there. He left his Gryffindor jumper in her dormitory too.”

“Hold on,” James said. “Last night…at the Quidditch game, it was mandatory that all boys went except for those who take Astronomy because they had some sort of project in the Tower last night.”

“Yeah, so?”

“There are only three guys in Gryffindor that take Astronomy. It had to be one of them.”

“Oh…” Andrea said. “That was actually sort of smart, Potter.”

James smiled. “Thanks,” he said and dashed off but he didn’t need to run fast. Sirius had come downstairs and was entering the common room.

“Padfoot!” James called. “Which three guys don’t take Astronomy?”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “Why do you need to know?”

James explained his theory and Sirius scoffed. “Prongs, you are really obsessed.”

“Come on! Just tell me!”

“Well okay. Let me think. There’s Andrew Craywall, one of the beaters on the Gryffindor team. He couldn’t play last night because of the Astronomy project.”

Sirius continued, “Then you have William Osler.”

“The chess nerd?” James scoffed.

“Yeah,” Sirius said and then thought about who the last one was. “I think the last one was…oh wait…it’s Mo-”

“Doesn’t matter anymore,” James said. “Now that I think of it, I remember very clearly seeing Craywall flirting with Evans.”

“So you’re sure it was Craywall?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe this – Craywall’s an idiot, I can’t believe Lily would kiss him. He even left his sweater in her dormitory.”

Then, as if right now cue, Craywall entered the common room with a dumb look on his face.

“Hey Craywall!” James called out to him. Sirius tried to stop him but James wouldn’t listen.

“What?” Craywall responded.

“Where were you last night?”

“Doing the astronomy project, Potter.”

“Oh come on,” James scoffed. “The last time you did an assignment was in first year. Where were your really?”

Craywall smiled. “You’re not as dumb as you look, Potter. I had a date.”

James gaped. He couldn’t believe it. “See you later,” Craywall said as he went up to his dormitory.

“I guess that solves the mystery,” Sirius said coming up from behind. “Sorry, mate.”

“I’m going to go to the Quidditch sheds,” James said. “See you later.”

Sirius nodded and went back upstairs to his dormitory after James left for the Quidditch shed. As he entered, he saw that Remus wasn’t there but Peter was sitting and eating a piece of cheese.

“What happened?” Peter asked.

“Turned out it was Craywall who kissed Lily,” Sirius said casually as he sat on his bed. “Prongs has gone to the Quidditch shed.”

“Oh, does he want to be alone?” Peter asked sympathetically.

“Nah,” Sirius said. “My guess is that he’s gone to bewitch the bludgers.”

Just then there was a knock on the dormitory door and Andrea entered. She was holding a bundle of cloth and smiled at Sirius as she entered.

“This is the sweater that the guy left behind,” she said, referring to the clothes. “I thought maybe Potter might want to see it.”

“Thanks,” Sirius said, taking the sweater and Andrea left. Sirius looked at the sweater and sighed. “Poor Prongs,” he said.

“Wow, Craywall must have lost some weight since I last saw him,” Peter remarked.

“Well…either he didn’t kiss Evans or he’s in denial about his weight. I’m guessing it’s the first one.”

Remus entered the room, looking tired but still smiling.

“You won’t believe it,” Sirius said excitedly.

“Hold on a second, I need to find my Charms notes. Professor Flitwick wants to see me.”

Remus rummaged through his bag and found a pile of paper which he grabbed roughly. “Ok, tell me. What is it?” he said.

“Look at this,” Sirius said and held out the sweater in his hand.

“My sweater!” Remus said happily. “I’ve been looking for that since this morning. Thanks Padfoot!”

Sirius almost lost his balance as he stared in awe. But then, something occurred to him. “Moony,” he began. “Prongs kept complaining that Lily was smiling too much. Were you there when he saw her and she was smiling?”

“Yeah, I was,” Remus replied.

“Oh and he also said that Lily made some lame excuse about notes to you when she talked to you this morning.”

“She was just returning some study notes,” Remus said innocently. “Listen Padfoot, I really need to go.”

“Alright, just one more question,” Sirius urged. “How was your astronomy project last night?”

“Oh it was really easy,” he said. “In fact, I finished an hour early.” Remus smiled. “See you guys later!”